Jacks family
by wolfypuppypiles
Summary: A little whumpy take on episode 2x18 Frank Colton tackles Mac a bit too hard and Jack is NOT happy


….

Jack went down, limbs locked up and teeth clenched as electricity shot through him but it didn't stop him from seeing Mac run towards him.

He called out but Jack couldn't call back to warn him about Frank as the Colton sprinted up behind Mac and tackled him to the ground.

Mac hadn't had any time to brace himself, and with no warning, he was unable to stop his head from smacking the ground.

It all happened so quickly that it was hard to separate out the events in such a small time frame.

His breath was forced from his lungs, the world tilted and his head struck the concrete. His world spun and a cry of pain left his mouth as an elbow dug into his side. Something cracked inside him and his vision went white.

Riley's voice cried out somewhere near him, rushed and worried. "Get off him!"

Hands gripped the front of his shirt, as Mac's hands came up to shove against the chest in front of him, and his vision cleared enough to see his attacker as one of the Colton boys.

Billy ran up and grabbed Riley around the waist, dragging her back as she tried to fight him off. She could see Mac having trouble with the older Colton boy, looking dazed and in pain as he tried to escape his grip. Riley kicked harder, pulling against the arms that held her back.

"Stop! You're hurting him!"

Jack got to his feet, about to rescue his kids, when a stern voice called out instead.

"What is going on here?"

Billie released his hold on Riley, the girl shoving him back as Frank dumped Mac on the ground and took a step back.

Mamma did not look happy. "Are my sweet, sensible, responsible children, really getting into a fight?"

Jack wasn't too happy about it either, making his way to Mac where he was cowering on the ground. "Yes, they are. You might want a keep an eye on them, Mama, since they were the ones that screwed up and let our man go."

Frank puffed up his chest, coming towards Jack with a growl. "Hey, that wasn't on us."

Jack really wasn't in the mood, glaring at the kid and placing a hand on his chest to shove him back. Mama didn't like anyone touching her kid but she could see the way Jacks playful persona had dropped away as soon as one of his team members was hurt and she stayed silent.

Riley ran over and knelt next to the blonde on the ground, Jack following suit and placing a hand on Mac's arm.

The younger agent flinched backwards, hands coming up to grip at Jacks wrists as if he were a threat.

Jack drew his hands back, quick to reassure. "Hey, it's okay. It's just me, Mac."

The blonde sighed, slumping back to the ground, tired. His partner's name came as a sigh as Riley's hands gently gripped his arm in comfort. "Jack."

Jack frowned down at him, worried as he cupped a hand under his chin and lifted Mac's face for him to see. He clenched his jaw, growing more furious as he looked the boy over.

He supposed Mac wasn't a boy anymore, but it was hard not to see him as a kid when he looked so dazed. He blinked slowly, frowning and trying to pull his face from Jacks hold as he grumbled.

Jack kept his voice soft, with only a hint of an edge to get his partners attention. "Hold still, let me take a look at you."

There was a graze over Mac's cheek, looking sore and bruised, but what made Jack really mad was the blood dripping down the kid's temple. It spread through his hair, staining the blonde red, as a trail dripped down over Mac's jaw, curving along under his chin and down his neck.

Jacks fingers curled into a fist as he slowly let go of Mac and got to his feet. Everything in him was itching, burning, to punch the person that hurt his teammate. He wanted him to look just like Mac, with maybe a broken nose thrown in for good measure.

Mama stepped forward, seeing the situation begin to escalate once more. "You really gonna hit my boy right in front of me?"

Jack was unravelling, never doing well when one of his own got hurt. HIs voice was hard as he glared at the son of a bitch in front of him.

"He already hurt my boy and you know I'm not gonna let that slide. Look at his face!"

Mac barely had his eyes open and his head was spinning, making him too dizzy to get up, but he could hear how angry Jack was and reached out, searching for his partner.

"Jack, it's okay."

He shook his head, not looking back as he stared down the oldest Colton boy.

"No, it's not. You're hurt, Mac. And he's going to pay for putting a hand on you."

Mac's fingers searched forward, finding Jacks pant leg and curled into the fabric as he tried to sit up before he let out a cry and fell back.

All heads immediately turned back to the agent on the ground, as Mac's arms came around his middle as he squirmed on the ground, trying to breathe through the pain.

Jack forgot about Frank and knelt back next to Mac, palms pressing against his chest to get him to lay still.

"Don't move, let me see."

Riley, still standing next to the Colton boys, shoved Billy away from her with a glare and raced over to her team. She knelt down and took Mac's hand in hers, fingers squeezing tight as Mac pulled in tight, pained gasps between clenched teeth.

Jack was mumbling reassurances as his careful hands pulled up Mac's shirt to reveal his bruised, aching chest.

Dips and bumps over his side and the red marks darkening his skin made it evident what was wrong.

Riley was furious. "You broke his ribs."

Mac groaned, squeezing her hand as he tried to squint up at the blurry faces above him. "Don't forget about the concussion. Ugh, I'm gonna throw up."

Jack carefully rolled his partner over, rubbing a hand over his back in soothing circles as he groaned against the concrete.

Jack sighed. "Missions blown. Our guy got away and Mac's hurt. We need to call Matty and bring in some people to clean this mess up."

Mac took in carefully measure breaths feeling absolutely awful. His side screamed in pain with every breath, and his head felt too big and too heavy, throbbing with every beat of his heart. But they couldn't just give up.

"No, it's our job to get him back. I'll be fine."

Jack rolled his eyes at Mac's stubbornness but carefully helped to ease him up to sitting anyway. "Oh, you're fine. Right. Pardon me if I don't believe you since your eyes are still closed and you're bleeding. I doubt you could find the car by yourself, let alone carry on with the mission."

Riley helped the agent sit up, hands on his back, while Jack took his hand and helped him to his unsteady feet.

"I'm perfectly capable of finishing the mission."

Jack smiled, tilting his head. "Oh really? What's the square root of ninety-seven, then genius?"

Mac answered at the same time as Riley, making Jack scowl at their answers.

"Nine point eight, four, eight, eight, five-"

"Jack, you don't even know the answer for that."

Jack pulled Mac's arm around his shoulders as he griped. "Oh shut up you two. Smartypants here is still concussed, I don't care what numbers he can throw at me, he's still bleeding everywhere and that makes me in the right."

Mac stumbled, tripping over his own feet and groaning at the pull on his ribs. Jack paused and shoved one hand in his back pocket, pulling out a hanky.

"Come here."

Mac held still as Jack carefully wiped the blood away from where it was dripping from Mac's chin and slipping down his neck.

Mama watched the two and saw the same care and love between the three agents that she felt with her own family, and she walked forward and grabbed her oldest sons arm.

"Frank, do you have something you want to say to Mr MacGyver?"

The man frowned, annoyed, but froze when he saw his mother's face. It was one he had seen far too many items as both a child and an adult and it was one that he did not want to mess with.

He turned to the blonde and shoved down his pride for the sake of his hide. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, I was just trying to stop you from going near my sister."

Jack was far from forgiving. "She tased me first if you had forgotten."

Jesse peeked around her brother when Mama grabbed her arm and yanked her over. She smiled awkwardly, shrugging as if it had all been an accident.

"Sorry."

Jack wasn't in the mood. "Sorry won't fix his head once you break it."

Mac groaned again, but in annoyance rather than pain. "Jack, let it go. We have a mission to finish. Call Matty and let her know what's happened and we'll come up with a new plan."

Jack looked back to the blonde, shaking his head and refusing. "Nuh uh, we need to get you checked out."

Mac ignored the way the light stabbed his eyes as he sent a pleading look to his partner. "Jack, you already checked me out. It's nothing we haven't dealt with before. This is important, I can get checked out after."

Jack was clearly unhappy about it but finally relented, never able to say no to Mac's puppy eyes. He grumbled as he carefully helped Mac sit down on a nearby step.

"Fine. But don't you move until I get back. Riley, take care of him."

Mama may have been bitter about the three agents taking her mark but MacGyver was a good young man and she couldn't stand idly by while he was hurt.

He was sitting stiffly, trying to even out his breaths, hands restless as he attempted to focus through the pain. Riley knelt in front of him, hand on his knee as she carefully wiped the blood from his face with Jacks handkerchief.

Her voice was soft as Mama approached. "It's a good thing Jacks such an old man, huh? Who still carries these around?"

Mac smiled though it was tight with pain. "You know I've heard him call wifi the wiffie before. Several times. I can't even tell if he does it on purpose or not."

Riley laughed, looking up as Mama came over holding an ice pack. Her smile stiffened but Mac didn't look mad.

"I got Billy to find this in one of the places around here. It'll help your side."

Mac nodded, gratefully as Riley watched her warily.

Mama knelt, gingerly holding the ice pack on Macs side as he hissed and tried not to squirm.

"I truly am sorry that you got hurt, Mr MacGyver. We all just get protective of each other and our family business. I'm sure you understand."

Mac nodded, smiling kindly. "It's okay, I know he didn't mean to hurt me. Accidents happen. I mean, the number of times we've tackled people- in fact, I've thrown people out of an aeroplane once or twice-"

Mamas eyes widened in shock, finding Riley's face as she nodded, Mac still talking.

"-And I'm sorry about Jack, he just worries about us."

Mama recovered from her shock and nodded. "That's what family does. You're lucky to have someone who cares about you so much that he would go up against a Colton to protect you."

Mac smiled, looking over to where Jack was pacing, phone pressed to his ear. "Yeah, we are."

The rest of the mission went...well, not smoothly but it went about as well as the rest of their missions did.

Mac pretended his head didn't hurt with every blink of his eyes, and conveniently forgot about his broken ribs when he leapt over the desk for the laptop.

With Riley in danger, the dot on the screen disappearing, Jacks focus was on whether he'd be losing his little girl or not, but as soon as he knew she was safe, he was back to Macs side.

"Thank god she's okay. Now I only have one kid to worry about."

He made his way to Macs side and carefully eased him into a chair. "Now, can we please get you checked out? I wanna make sure your ribs are still doing their job and not stabbed into your lungs."

Mac grit his teeth and nodded. He was in pain and exhausted and all he wanted was to sleep, even if it was in a bed in the Phoenix med bay.

Which is exactly where he ended up. Ribs and head checked, blood cleaned away and cut sterilized and covered, he was sleeping soundly under the careful watch of his partner.

Jack sighed, tired after their long day, and watched Mac's chest rise and fall as he slept.

The door creaked open quietly, Jacks face turning towards the new gest and immediately breaking into a smile. "Riley! Hey, there you are."

The girl smiled back as Jack hurried over and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Hey, Jack. How's Mac doing?"

Jack closed his eyes, brushing the hair at the back of Riley's head as he squeezed her in his arms, not wanting to ever let go. "He's okay, just a little sore but, ooh little lady I am so glad you're back."

He released her but gripped the tops of her arms, face lit up with a smile, eyes creasing with the worry he had felt when the tracker for her plane disappeared.

"You had me so worried. I mean, I knew you could fix it but...hearing the plane start to go down and then it disappearing off the radar? You almost gave me a heart attack."

Riley smiled too. "Believe me, I wasn't exactly calm either. I'm just glad to be on the ground with you guys. I don't think I'm ever going back up in the air again though."

Jack nodded and they both took a seat next to Mac's sleeping form. "I'm okay with that."

They both watched the sleeping agent and Riley snuck a peek at Jacks' face. "You sound tired. You should sleep, I'll watch over him."

He shrugged. He was tired. "Yeah, today was hard. Both of you were in trouble but Mac wouldn't let me help and you were too far away and I couldn't do anything and...I may keep you two close for the next week or so."

His smile was small and a little guilty but Riley simply lay her head on his shoulder and leaned into his side, echoing his words. "I'm okay with that."

Jack's heart warmed as he wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head, happy to just have both his kids back and in one piece.


End file.
